Maulana Abdul
Kalam Azad
Media History
“These two countries [India and Pakistan]
will now focus on the military and
society will not develop,” predicted
Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad in a wellknown speech in Delhi.
Maulana’s Political Ideology
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Maulana Azad’s views earned him a
contentious status in both India and
Pakistan.
Many Pakistanis consider his ideas of
secularism and nationalism to be against
Islam.
In India, he is also criticized by many for
not doing enough to prevent partition.
Maulana’s Political Ideology
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Not only did he criticize partition, he went
on to condemn all those who played a role
in the historic events of August 1947.
He questioned whether Jinnah could
actually be a Muslim leader, citing his
westernized lifestyle.
He ridiculed Gandhi’s ideals of nonviolence.
Maulana’s Political Ideology
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He opposed Nehru’s biased attitude
towards Indian Muslims and denounced his
relationship with Lady Mountbatten.
His basic argument against partition is that
it would be a major loss to Muslims on both
sides.
On the Indian side, Muslims would lose
their majaority.
Maulana’s Political Ideology
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On Pakistan’s side, the Muslim population
would not be able to compete with India nor
would it be able to solve the issues of
Indian Muslims.
He believed that partition would give birth
to two states that would always be in
confrontation with each other.
Maulana’s Early Life
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Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born in
Mecca in 1888 and lived there till he was
about seven.
His father Khairuddin, a scholar-sufi and pir
originally from Calcutta, was persuaded by
his disciples to return to that city.
Under his strict father, Azad continued his
Islamic studies.
Maulana’s Early Life
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Though he resented the restrictive and
authoritarian manner in which this syllabus
was taught.
Therefore, on his own, Azad furtively
cultivated a taste for Urdu and Persian
literature and even learnt to play the sitar.
He got an astonishing memory and
encyclopedic information.
Maulana’s Early Life
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He was eager to write biography of Ghazali
when he was only twelve.
Two years later, he began to contribute
learned articles to Makhzan, the bestknown literary magazine of the day.
When Shams-ul-Ulama Shibli Nomani met
him, he was so much impressed by his
intellectual skills that he took Azad to
Lucknow
Maulana’s Early Life
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He made him prominent in national circles
by offering him editorship of Al-Nadva.
In 1906, he became the editor of a very
popular biweekly, Vakil of Amritsar.
By the time he was thirteen, Azad was
disillusioned with his Islamic training due to
modernist writings of Sir Syed Ahmed
Khan.
Maulana’s Early Life
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He fell into a phase of atheism which, according
to him, lasted from the age of 14 to 22.
During his later teenage years he came into
close contact with the Hindu revolutionaries of
Bengal.
A combination of brief travel to the Middle East
and his Arabic reading also exposed him more
deeply to the reformist ideas of Sheikh Abduh of
Egypt and the uncompromising nationalism and
anti-imperialism of Mustafa Kamil Pasha.
Maulana’s Career
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But his faithlessness in religion came to an end
in 1910 when an emotional/mystical experience
renewed his faith in religion.
Azad’s career really began to take-off in 1912
with the appearance of his Urdu journal Al-Hilal.
Equipped with literary pursuit, breathtaking
language and auxiliary attractions the journal
simultaneously meant to preach ‘pure’ Islam
and Indian independence.
Maulana’s Career
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Through his unique style, Azad sought to bring
Indian Muslims onto the platform of the freedom
movement and to work in cooperation with
Hindus.
Despite his earlier admiration for Sir Syed
Ahmad Khan, Azad was then a harsh critic of
the loyalist politics of Aligarh University.
Though the journal was ambiguous about
specific methods of cooperation and postIndependence political arrangements.
Maulana’s Career
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Maulana had been partial to sentiments of
Hindu-Muslim unity from the very beginning of
his life.
His journal was viewed as seditious when
suddenly World War I broke out in Europe.
He was expelled from Bengal and interned in
Ranchi for three and a half years.
It was during this period that he wrote his wellknown commentary on the opening Surah of AlQuran.
Maulana’s Career
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A few weeks after his release, for the first time
he met Mr. Gandhi in Delhi and became the first
prominent Muslim in India to associate himself
with Mr. Gandhi and his plan of noncooperation.
In 1920 the Indian Muslims were extremely
disturbed by the British government’s handling
of the Turkish empire and the Khilafat during the
War.
Maulana’s Career
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In consultation with Azad, Gandhi persuaded
the Congress to make the demand for the
protection of the Khilafat a part of the national
demand for freedom.
In 1921 Azad was again arrested. When he was
released in 1923, the country was passing
through a strong wave of communal rioting.
He became an active member on the Congress
stage. Though he continued his efforts to bring
various Muslim organizations in line with
Congress.
Maulana’s Career
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In 1928 serious differences arose between the
Congress and organizations like the Muslim
League and the Khilafat Conference over the
Nehru report.
Azad was forced to break ties with the latter two
organizations.
In 1930, the Congress declared complete
independence as the goal of the national
movement, and civil disobedience continued in
vigor following Gandhi’s famous Salt March
Maulana’s Career
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Azad was imprisoned twice in a row during this
period, and then released in 1936 along with the
other Congress leaders.
It was during these periods of imprisonment that
the Maulana was able to complete the first
edition of his famous Tarjuman al-Quran, his
Urdu translation and commentary on the Quran.
Maulana’s Career
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Maulana Abul Kalam Azad articulated an Islam
that was hospitable towards other forms of
monotheism, especially Hinduism, and which
placed emphasis on commonly held rules of
righteous conduct.
Though it was a landmark effort to inject a
liberal ethos into Islam, the Tarjuman al-Quran
was unable to receive the overwhelming impact
he hoped it would
Maulana’s Career
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in 1939 he was elected President of the
Congress.
His presidential address at the Ramgarh
session of the Congress in 1940 occurred just a
few days before the Muslim League’s historic
Pakistan Resolution.
It was negation of the two-nation theory and
articulated his oft-repeated ideology of secular
nationalism.
Maulana’s Career
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Azad was severely criticized by influential
Muslim political leaders as well as so many
religious and modern educated classes who
earlier in his career had adored him and his
revivalist ideas.
Azad was imprisoned for a fifth time in 1940,
following a limited campaign of civil
disobedience, and released a year later.
Maulana’s Career
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By 1942, and following the more comprehensive
Quit India Movement, he, along with the other
Congress leaders, was once again imprisoned.
He was released in 1946 and continued to be
the president of the All India National Congress
throughout the War years.
During his presidency, he tried to persuade the
Congress to make some concessions and come
to terms with the Muslim League to avoid
division of India
Maulana’s Career
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The Maulana reluctantly relinquished the
Congress presidency in 1946, hoping that this
would open an avenue between the Congress
and the League.
He kept out of the coalition government formed
that year, but in 1947, at Gandhi’s urging he
became Minister of Education.
Though, like Gandhi, he was forced to accept
Partition, he could never reconcile himself to it
and was rather heartbroken by the event and its
bloody aftermath.
Maulana’s Career
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After partition, he held the post of Minister of
Education of India for ten years.
Though he was not a particularly effective
administrator, he did perform some important
services such as cultivating technical, adult, and
women’s education, and an academy of
literature, as well as opposing the ejection of
English as a national language.
He was a great literary figure and essentially a
thinker and the chief exponent of Wahdat-i-deen
or the essential oneness of all religions
Maulana’s Career
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Among his works Ghubar-i-Khatir is considered
not only his masterpiece but also an illustration
of great Urdu literature.
He died in 1958 of a stroke and was buried in a
dignified corner near Jamia Masjid in Old Delhi.
Towards Pakistan and her leaders, the attitude
of Maulana Azad remained dignified and
statesmanlike.
“Now that it has come into existence,
everybody’s interest lies in its being strong and
stable’.”